US policy in Iraq is not working and George Bush should consider radical changes, according to a top-level panel backed by the president.With the White House coming under increasing pressure over the carnage in Iraq, the recommendations from the bipartisan 10-member panel, led by former secretary of state James Baker, could provide political cover for Mr Bush, should he decide to change course.Two options under consideration would involve withdrawing American troops in phases, and bringing Iraq's neighbours, Iran and Syria, into a joint effort to stop the fighting, the Los Angeles Times reported today.In a press conference last week, Mr Bush reiterated his position that the US would not leave Iraq "until the job was done".... http://www.guardian.co.uk

The sprawling state of Pennsylvania is the kind of place George Bush's Republican party has to win if they are to keep control of Congress when Americans go to the polls next month. It's a middle ground between north-eastern urban centres like New York and the declining industrial heartland of the Midwest, a place where small towns really do have churches, libraries and sweet shops on their main squares. "This is Middle America," says Barbara M Neill, a retired music teacher who now writes for the Laurel Mountain Post, a community newspaper in south-western Pennsylvania. Although the region has traditionally voted for Democrats, locals "have traditional values and beliefs", and they support - and join - the military, Mrs Neill says. "This is a patriotic area of the country," she adds. But people here are confused about an issue that was once assumed to be a guaranteed vote-winner for the Republicans, she says - the war in Iraq. ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6041658.stm

Car bombs killed at least 30 people in Iraq on Monday, including two near simultaneous blasts in a mixed area in Baghdad shortly before Muslims gathered at sunset to break their fasting during the holy month of Ramadan. The fresh violence came as Bush assured Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki that Washington had not set any deadline for the Iraqi government to get control of sectarian violence threatening to plunge Iraq into civil war. U.S. commanders have warned that Sunni insurgent groups such as al Qaeda battling the U.S.-backed Shi'ite-led government would launch attacks during Ramadan. On Sunday, 10 people were killed in restive Kirkuk in multiple car bombs. Iraq has been gripped by sectarian violence between Muslim Shi'ites and Sunnis since the bombing of a Shi'ite shrine in February. Thousands have been killed and more than 300,000 have been forced to flee their homes....http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061016/ts_nm/iraq_dc

Severe thunderstorms with torrential rains and a possible tornado hit southeast Texas overnight, killing two people, flooding roads and shutting down numerous schools Monday.As much as 10 inches of rain fell in the Houston-Galveston area. More rain is expected across Texas on Monday, with the possibility of damaging winds and flooding, the National Weather Service said.Two women were found dead in a sport-utility vehicle on a heavily flooded roadway in Houston Monday morning. A police spokesman didn't know the extent of the flooding, but broadcast reports said the SUV was in 8 feet of water.South of Houston, as many as 20 homes were damaged when a suspected tornado roared through Magnolia Beach before daybreak, Calhoun County Sheriff B.B. Browning said. The only injury reported in the small community 75 miles northeast of Corpus Christi was a cut thumb a man suffered from flying glass, he said....http://www.usatoday.com/weather/stormcenter/2006-10-16-texas-flooding_x.htm?csp=34

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has reportedly delivered a scathing attack on US President George W Bush, saying he is inspired by Satan. Speaking to a group of supporters, Mr Ahmadinejad said he himself had inspirational links to God, Iranian media reports. He was talking to supporters at a mosque in the capital Tehran. The reports come as Iran is facing the prospect of UN sanctions over its nuclear programme. The president has been making light of the risk of any confrontation with the outside world. According to the Iranian media, Mr Ahmadinejad said he had inspirational links to God, and went on to say that if you were a true believer, God would show you miracles. Then the Iranian president said Mr Bush was similar to him. According to Mr Ahmadinejad, the US president also receives inspiration - but it is from Satan. He repeated: "Satan inspires Mr Bush."...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6055834.stm

Officials began inspecting bridges and roads across Hawaii early Monday following the strongest earthquake to rattle the islands in more than two decades, a 6.6-magnitude quake that caused blackouts and landslides but no reported fatalities. At least one stretch of road leading to a bridge near the earthquake's epicenter on the Big Island collapsed, Civil Defense Agency spokesman Dave Curtis said Monday. Several other roads on the Big Island were closed by mudslides, debris and boulders, but most were still passable, he said. The power was back on across most of the islands Monday morning. "The Big Island is practically all up. Maui is all up. Kauai didn't sustain any damage as far as we can tell; their power has always been on," Rod Haraga of the Hawaii Department of Transportation said on CBS News' The Early Show. "The big problem is in Oahu, where we have 800,000 population." The power grid there has only been restored 50 percent, he said. ...http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/10/15/national/main2090117.shtml?source=RSSattr=U.S._2090117